scimitar

• cimeter, cimiter, cymeter, semitar (obsolete)
• scimiter
• scimetar

First attested in 1548. From Middle French cimeterre (15c.) or directly from Italian scimitarra, possibly from an unknown Ottoman Turkish word, ultimately from Persian شمشیر‎ (šamšir, “sword”). Doublet of shamshir.

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪmɪtɑːɹ/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪmɪtə(ɹ)/

• Audio pronunciation

  (file)

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɪmɪtə(ɹ)

scimitar (plural scimitars)

1. A sword of Persian origin that features a curved blade.
   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 167, columns 1–2:

     The Prince of Morocco:
     […] By this Symitare,
     That ſlew the Sophie, and a Perſian Prince
     That won three fields of Sultan Solyman,
     I would ore-ſtare the ſterneſt eies that looke,
     Out-braue the heart moſt daring on the earth:
     Plucke the yong ſucking Cubs from the ſhe Beare,
     Yea, mocke the Lion when he rors for pray
     To win the Ladie. […]

   • 2022 April 12, Helen Lewis, “Among Europe’s Ex-Royals”, in The Atlantic‎:

     Next door is a room devoted to Albanian history (“what a lovely scimitar,” I find myself exclaiming, my reserves of small talk inadequate at the sight of the family’s sword collection), […]

2. A long-handled billhook.

• scimitar-horned oryx
• scimitar pod

• falchion

scimitar (third-person singular simple present scimitars, present participle scimitaring, simple past and past participle scimitared)

1. (transitive) To strike or slice with, or as if with, a scimitar.

• Ramistic